What if Walt Disney was the producer of Looney Tunes/Walt Disney Animated Classics/Cinderella
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney and originally released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the fairy tale of the same name by Charles Perrault, it is the 13rd Disney animated feature film. Directing credits go to Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, and Wilfred Jackson. Songs were written by Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman. Songs in the film include "Cinderella", "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes", "Sing Sweet Nightingale", "The Work Song", "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", and "So This is Love". It features the voices of Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Rhoda Williams, James MacDonald, Luis van Rooten, Don Barclay, Mike Douglas and Lucille Bliss and narrated by Sebastian Cabot. At the time, Walt Disney Productions had suffered from losing connections to the European film markets due to the outbreak of World War II, enduring some box office bombs like Fantasia and Bambi, both of which would later become more successful with several re-releases in theaters and on home video. At the time, however, the studio was over $4 million in debt and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Walt Disney and his animators turned back to feature film production in 1948 after producing a string of package films with the idea of adapting Charles Perrault's Cinderella into a motion picture. It is the first Disney film in which all of Disney's Nine Old Men worked together as directing animators. After two years in production, Cinderella was finally released on February 15, 1950. It became the greatest critical and commercial hit for the studio since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Pinocchio (1940) and helped reverse the studio's fortunes. It is considered one of the best American animated films ever made, as selected by the American Film Institute. It received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Music, Original Song for "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo". Decades later, it was followed by a 2015 live-action remake directed by Kenneth Branagh and a 2016 direct-to-video sequel Cinderella II: A Twist in Time. Plot Cinderella is the much-loved daughter of a widowed aristocrat. He decides to remarry, believing his beloved daughter needs a mother's care. Ultimately, Cinderella's father marries Lady Tremaine, a proud and confident woman with two daughters just Cinderella's age from a previous marriage named Drizella and Anastasia. After Cinderella's father dies, Lady Tremaine reveals herself to be a cold and cruel tyrant who is fully jealous of Cinderella's charm and beauty. Lady Tremaine takes over the estate and begins to abuse and mistreat Cinderella, ultimately forcing her to become a scullery maid in her own home, while also squandering off the fortune until there was nearly nothing left. Despite this, Cinderella remains a kind and gentle woman, befriending the animals in the barn and the mice and birds who live around the chateau. For with each dawn, she found new hope that someday her dreams of happiness will soon come true. One morning, Cinderella and the mice found a new mouse in the house who was caught in a mouse trap. She gives him the name Octavius (or Gus for short) and some new clothes and informs fellow mouse Jaq, turtle Clarissa and crow Jasper to warn Gus about Lucifer, Lady Tremaine's wicked cat. The animals spy on Lucifer as Cinderella starts her chores. When Cinderella is giving breakfast to the animals, Lucifer chases Gus, who hides under Anastasia's teacup. Cinderella delivers breakfast to her stepfamily. When Anastasia opens her teacup and finds Gus, she screams to her mother about it. Lady Tremaine then punishes Cinderella with extra chores. At the royal palace, the King and the Grand Duke organize a ball in an effort to find a suitable wife for his son, Prince Thomas, considering the fact that the King wants to see grandchildren before his death. Every eligible maiden in the kingdom is requested to attend. Cinderella asks her stepmother if she can attend since she is still part of the family and all maiden women are invited. Lady Tremaine agrees, provided if Cinderella finishes her chores and finds a nice dress to wear. With Cinderella too distracted with extra chores, her animal friends, led by Jaq, Gus, Clarissa and Jasper, fix up a gown that belonged to Cinderella's late mother. They go downstairs and scoop up Drizella's old beads and Anastasia's old sash after they throw them on the floor, escaping with them before Lucifer catches them. The animals finish Cinderella's dress just as the carriage arrives. When Cinderella comes down wearing her new dress, Lady Tremaine compliments the gown, pointing out the beads and sash. Angered by the apparent theft of their discarded items by their stepsister, the stepsisters angrilly rip the gown into rags before snootily leaving for the ball with Lady Tremaine. Heartbroken, Cinderella runs outside to the garden and begins to cry. At the point of giving up her dreams, an Fairy Godmother appears and bestows upon Cinderella a new ball gown with a pair of glass slippers. She also transforms a pumpkin into a carriage, the mice into horses, Clarissa into a maidesmaid, Jasper into a coachman, and Bruno the dog into a footman. Cinderella departs for the ball after her fairy godmother warns her that the spell will break at the stroke of midnight. At the ball, the Prince rejects every girl until he sees Cinderella. The two fall strongly in love and dance alone throughout the castle grounds. Lady Tremaine thinks there's something familiar about her, but is unable to make the connection before the Grand Duke closes the curtain to give the couple some privacy. As the clock starts to chime midnight. Cinderella flees to her coach and away from the castle, dropping one of her glass slippers by accident. The Duke sends the guards to stop them, but Cinderella and the animals hide from them. After her gown turns back into rags, the mice point out that the other slipper is still on her foot. Back at the castle, the Duke tells the King of the disaster. He also reveals, however, that the Prince will not marry anyone except the owner of the slipper, and sets out to find her. The next morning, the King proclaims that the Grand Duke will visit every house in the kingdom to find the girl whose foot fits the glass slipper so that she can be married to the Prince. When news reaches Cinderella's household, her stepmother and stepsisters prepare for the Duke's arrival. Overhearing this, Cinderella dreamily hums the song played at the ball. Realizing that Cinderella was the girl who danced with the Prince, Lady Tremaine follows Cinderella to her artic room and locks her stepdaughter there. When the Duke arrives, Jaq, Gus, Clarissa and Jasper retrieve the key to Cinderella's room from the stepmother's pocket and bring it upstairs, but before they can deliver it, they are ambushed by Lucifer, who traps Gus under a cup. With the help of the other mice, birds, and Bruno, they chase him out the window and Cinderella is freed. As the Duke prepares to leave after the stepsisters unsuccessfully try on the slipper, Cinderella appears and requests to try it on. Knowing the slipper will fit, Lady Tremaine trips the footman, causing him to drop and shatter the slipper. Cinderella then produces the other glass slipper, much to her stepmother's horror. Delighted at this indisputable proof of the maiden's identity, the Duke slides the slipper onto her foot and it fits perfectly. Cinderella and Prince Charming celebrate their wedding and lived happily ever after. Cast Production Story development Casting Animation Live-action reference Character animation Music Soundtrack Release Critical reaction Box office Home media Awards Trivia *In the original French version of the story, the slippers are made of fur instead of glass. This was because of a translation error. *Walt Disney said Cinderella was one of his favorite stories because he saw himself in her shoes (pun intended) since he/she worked so hard and got rewarded for his/her work. *This was the first Disney feature film to be narrated by Sebastian Cabot, who would be the narrator in later Disney films until his death in 1977. *This was the first fully-developed, feature-length film the studio released after wartime cutbacks forced them to release several "package films" (Melody Time (1948), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), et al). The success of the animation department depended greatly on its success *Although it was often assumed that Lucifer falled to his death from the tower, he is shown as being alive in Cinderella II: A Twist in Time. The logic of how he survived is never addressed directly, so fans have come up with their own theories. The most popular: 1) As per one popular bit of folklore (partly based on scientific facts), falling cats have a proportionally improbable ability to fall from extreme heights and land standing without injury, due to specialized muscular reflexes. 2) As per another popular bit of folklore (which has no factual justification whatsoever, but fits suitably into a fairy-tale context), cats have "eight spare lives" so it was Lucifer's feline privilege to be resurrected after his violent death. 3) As per a more recent bit of popular folklore (which largely post-dates this movie but can be applied retroactively), Lucifer was protected from injury by his fat flesh which provided an insulating cushion against any bone breakage when he hit the ground. **Lucifer would later reappeared as the main antagonist in Stuart Little (1999). *Walt Disney had not had a huge hit after Pinocchio (1940). The production of this film was regarded as a major gamble on his part. At a cost of nearly $3,000,000, Disney insiders claimed that if this movie had failed at the box office, it would have been the end of the Disney studio. The film was a big hit. The profits from its release, with the additional profits from record sales, music publishing, publications and other merchandise gave Disney the cash flow to finance a slate of productions (animated and live-action), establish his own distribution company for his feature films (while his animated shorts remained distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures), enter television production and begin building Disneyland during the decade.